‘Intolerance, social injustice behind psychological issues’

Lahore : Nazia Khan, a Pakistani-American clinical psychologist, has said that the causes of abuses, murders and growing psychological problems in Pakistan are intolerance, social injustice and distance from Islamic teaching.

The psychologists, teachers and parents as well as other sections of society need to play their role to eradicate the social injustice and other bad things in society, she said.

Nazia Khan said that there should be a health curriculum in every educational institution and the government should appoint a psychologist in every institution. She said that physical activities for children should be made compulsory in schools, colleges and universities. In order to build a healthy society, there should also be opportunities for recreation for the students and children, the clinical psychologist said.

In response to a question, she said nowadays parents did not have time for their children which was affecting the upbringing of the children.

Parents should keep a close eye on their children while the growing use of internet in children needs to be curtailed. Parents should give quality time to their children so that they can be trained properly for becoming a useful citizen of society.

Talking about suicides of children due to failure in exams, the American psychologist said that if children did not get good marks in exams, they should not be scolded. She asked the parents to not put pressure on children and force them to study what they did not want to study.

"Let them choose the field in which they want to go,” she said. When parents force children to do what they did not like to do, the children go into depression. When the children make a mistake, explain it to them with love, she said.

“One of the reasons for our social problems is distance from Islamic teachings.

We should maintain good relations with neighbours and go to relatives and attend marriage ceremonies. Lifestyle changes need to be made to go to bed early at night and get up early in the morning," she said. Provision of justice to the people is very important for the formation of a healthy society, she concluded.